Low carb diet symptoms and conditions

I was diagnosed with Factor V Leiden after experiencing bilateral PE's in February 2004. Since then, I have gained A LOT of weight. Not that I needed to but dang. I am at my highest ever & nothing I do will make it go down. I am almost 80 pounds heavier than I was in 2004. Something is not right. I suffer from depression (have for more than 15 years). My medication doesn't seem to have the same effect. My joints are killing me so it's hard to exercise.

A side note, shortly after being hospitalized for the PE's for a week, I noticed my hair thinning. Doctor told me it was because of the "shock" to my system due to having the PE's.

I will have to be on Warfarin for the rest of my life. I turn 45 in November. Ugh.

Has anybody had the same problem with weight gain? Is there anything to do about it? I feel I am at the end of my rope & slowing losing my grip.

I was diagnosed with Crohn's back in the 80's finally, after suffering since I was 12 and being told I was a child with a "nervous" stomach...dad used to tease me because I had to use every bathroom I came across, not realizing there was a problem. I had a portion of my bowel removed in 84 - the ileum valve along with a portion of the upper and lower bowel surrounding it, which, at the time was the most diseased portions. Removing the valve means that I must inject vitamin b-12 for the rest of my life as that valve is the place - the only place in your body that absorbs and uptakes that vitamin for you. As with any inflammatory disease, other inflammatory problems can occur because of the high inflammation running in your body. For me, this meant a form of arthritis, rheumatism or whatever. Doc wants me to go to the rheumatologist, but so far I have gotten by without YET another diagnosis on my plate. Before the surgery I asked my internal specialist if seeing a nutritionist would help me. I was so, so sick at the time. He scoffed, looked disgusted and asked what do you eat that makes you sick? I said everything. He said, then what is a nutritionist going to tell you to eat that isn't going to make you sick? At the time, I was so sick I just wanted to die and accepted that as an answer. After the surgery and many courses of different drugs for Crohn's - all of them with side effects that kept me from living a "normal" life - all side effects seeming worse than the actual disease itself I did a tremendous amount of studying on the history of Crohn's.- Burrill B. Crohn (1884-1983) was the man to discover it. In one of the articles I read he prescribed a very low carb diet to his patients which seemed to help in the majority of them to keep flare ups at a minimum. I have found, through years of experimentation with different diets ranging from health food diets on down the line, that the low-carb diet keeps my disease in check. People are like kids though. They don't always do what they know is good for them. I love chocolate, breads and sweets. In some studies I have read that you crave what may be bad for you because the bacteria your gut harbors wants to live and makes you crave what it needs to live. So, when I yank carbs from my diet - after the initial withdrawal stage and cleaning out of the gut from having done so (much diarrhea), I begin to feel almost like a normal person again with energy and pain-free. I slowly introduce fruit back in - but, through a series of colonics I had some years back, the practitioner was able to determine many foods I was allergic to just by noticing what comes out in the movement that has not been digested. Apples I can have, but not the peel. Cantaloupes - no - watermelon - not very often, etc... you can mostly tell by looking at the stool what your body is rejecting. It is its way of telling you what not to eat. Like a kid though, I stray from what I know has been tried and true and when I stray too long, joint pain comes on with a vengeance. That is when I get slapped back on the steroids to get the inflammation to back off again. When I'm not on the diet the joint pain can be controlled with Celebrex, but, when not on the diet and not taking Celebrex, the pain is out of control and has to get reeled back in with a course of steroids. So, if I can stop being a stupid kid (I'm 50) and just friggin' do what I know I need to do, I'm 95% pain-free and medication free. I have stayed mostly med free now since I was diagnosed in 84 or so through the no-carb method. The only times I had to take meds for this was when I was stupid with food for too long and one other - I had a kidney infection that I didn't know I had. It threw the Crohn's out of remission big time causing me to have to be on heavy-duty antibiotics, steroids, etc. It nearly put me in the hospital. I thought I was having a Crohn's flare-up only, but turned out the kidney infection was there and caused the flare-up - inflammation - when it hits you anywhere in your body it can cause that Crohn's to rear its ugly head. It took them years to diagnose me and through my own trial and error, I have learned how to live nearly and mostly drug free with this disease. For me, the drugs and effects are worse than the disease itself. The drugs make it hard for me to work and live. I can live near normal without them and with the diet. Your doctors will tell you differently. Doctors are put through med school on grants from pharmaceutical companies, therefore, they only learn how to treat with meds - they get kick backs from the meds they prescribe too. They do not learn how to treat through nutrition, nor do they want you to know that either. There's big money in meds - look around at all the hospitals and the many, many people taking all these drugs - synthetic drugs that are created to mimic receptors in your body so that your body accepts them, only to have to work hard to throw off the toxic substances - the synthetics they are created with so they can be patented. It is the PRACTICE of medicine and they are PRACTICING on you. Do your own research and study and conduct your own trials. I'm not saying don't go to your doc and don't take the meds - get it under control, but once you have it under control, find a way to keep it there as drug-free as possible. Your liver that has to process the toxicity of those meds will thank you for it. Your entire body will thank you for it. When the bad flare-ups happen, get your juicer out and drink nothing but fresh juices for 3-4 days. Juices are pre-digested. Your body doesn't have to work hard to assimilate the nutrients in them. Did you know that your body never does anything MORE strenuous than digesting? You could run a marathon and the amount of energy your body expends would not even come close to the energy it takes to digest your food! When you are ill - pull the food so your body can free that energy for your healing. You won't believe how much better you'll feel. Once you get it reeled back in by only having liquid for a couple of days, make sure your starch and sugar intake are lower when you begin to eat again. The bacteria in your gut feeds on carbs - starches and sugar. A good read is Marilyn and Harvey Diamond's "Fit For Life" - it has a good explanation as to how the digestive system operates - how the bacteria works - how your body has different acids that are used to digest your foods and how some of the acids that digest some foods do not mix well with other digestive juices and how to avoid that combination. This has been my trial and error - I prefer to NOT have to see the doc for Crohn's often...I haven't been to a gastro guy in 9 years or so. I do have a regular doc that, if I have flare-ups, will put me on a course of steroids for a couple of weeks to reel it back in, but the fact that it has to be reeled back in at all is my own fault because I was a bad little girl and didn't watch what I ate. For me - that's the simple solution - the food. But, you have to get it under control first before you go that route. I take the drugs til I feel better. Then I get off them and mind the diet. By the way - the arthritis - when on the diet troubles me very little. When I'm high carbing and high sugaring - the arthritis KILLS me... hope this helps any of you... I have studied this disease and nutrition since my diagnosis in the 80's... if I had it to do over again, I would go back to school and become a nutritionist...

I am currently 58 years old and lead a very active, healthy lifestyle. I began taking 10mg of Zocor, along with 1000mg of niacin in the summer of 2004 to reduce cholesterol (251) and triglycerides (571). The therapy dramatically improved my blood tests, however, within 6 weeks, I began to experience minor chronic skin infections, both fungal and bacterial. They were easily controlled with topical over the counter type medications, but they were annoying. At no time was this new condition linked to the statin/niacin therapy by my doctor(s). The infections became progressively worse over the next 3 years, and evolved into chronic folliculitis in my scalp, neck, and face, cystic acne, and persistent fungal infections that were becoming more difficult to control. In addition, I began to get chronic eye infections. It was as if my immune system was becoming ineffective. I stopped taking niacin in December of 2007 and the symptoms immediately lessened. I stopped taking Zocor in March of 2008 and within 2 weeks, all the skin problems and eye infections completely ended. My health was restored completely and I am glad to have put that whole mess behind me! I have been taking Omega 3 supplements to control my cholesterol and triglycerides and have had results that equaled the Zocor and Niacin therapy, with cholesterol at 160, triglycerides at 91, and a favorable HDL/LDL ratio. My physician is skeptical, but I know that my body was not functioning correctly with the statin/niacin treatment. I have found anecdotal reports from others who seem to have experienced a change in their immune system, but no mention of this as a side effect by the medical establishment.

I'm a mid 40's guy from New Zealand who has been recently prescribed (1 month ago) a 20mg tablet of Lipitor per day. I went off Lipex because I was having certain side effects with that paricular drug. For the last 2 week I have had pain in my right leg, knee and right hip that has got progressively worse. When I wake up in the morning and sit on a chair the leg pain is so severe I can only sit for only 30 seconds . When I stand up the hip issue begins...so I'm like a damn Yoyo at times. This has of course affected my work. After reading information here and on other websites I'm gonna quit Lipitor. Just rely on my Low carb diet and exercise, will later see how this affects my cholesterol level. If it reads okay...no more statins for me.
Pete

I'm a 34 year old petite 110 lb female and have been on Prednisone for 7 weeks now for a kidney disease (Focal Segmental Glomerulosclerosis). The treatment is supposed to be 3-4 months to see if I go into remission. If not, then I'm "steroid resistant" and they will have to move to a more aggressive treatment (a type of chemo). So I'm praying that this prednisone works!!

The first 2 weeks were a peice of case, then I developed many side effects, but the following being the most troublesome:

- 2 weeks - Edema. I got really bad fluid retention in my lower body and was put on a diuretic. A few days later my heart started pounding so hard I thought it would pop right out of my chest. Well turns out I was totally dehydrated from the diuretic so I'm off that now but the edema seems to be under control anyway (following a low-sodium/low carb diet). At the same time as the edema my skin dried right up too, and I need to put moisturizer on all the time. Even when I bend over I feel the skin on my back stretching.
- 2 weeks - Bloating. Really bad bloating. I'm bloated constantly now. Eating a low sodium diet helps, but not much. At night I weigh 5 lbs more than I do in the morning. I have terrible gas (burping mostly) all of the time. Sometimes it looks like I'm 6 months pregnant! And I'm sure people think I am because as I mentioned I'm normally thin and now I have to wear looser clothing to hide my belly, which doesn't really work and just looks obvious.
- 3 weeks - Sore knees. It feels like there's something growing in between my kneecaps that make it very difficult to climb stairs and it feels spongy when I walk. I can not put any pressure on my knees, I can't squat down, bend to pick something up, kneel, anything. And it gets worse at night.
- 4 week - Moonface. And my face has been blowing up like a balloon ever since. As I sit here and type I can actually feel it throbbing and growing still. I've got fat on my neck under my chin now that actually feels like it's choking me if I sit hunched over. I'm finding the moonface very difficult to cope with. I do not like to look in the mirror any more. I feel like a candy apple.
- 4 weeks - Cramps. Terrible terrible hand and feet cramps. Sometimes if I'm using my hands to chop vegetables or write or even use a fork, my hand cramps up like a lobster claw. I try to use the other hand then the same thing. And then almost every day, my feet. First one, then the other. Excruitiating cramps that seem to go in 15 minute intervals that make it impossible to walk, stand, sit, anything.
- 4 weeks - Very moody and aggitated. I am usually very easy going, now i have patience for nothing. I will be in a good mood one minute, the next I feel like I can kill someone. My boyfirend and our dogs are being very patient with me... I just hope they know it's the drugs not me! I just don't seem to have any control over my emotions.
- 5 weeks - Extreme fatigue. I used to have lots of energy, especially at the beginning of my Prednisone journey. But now I'm just wasted all of the time. I walk to and from work and the last couple weeks I want to just lay down on the side of the road and have a nap as I walk home. I used to do pilates (as much as possible with the sore knees) but it's too hard now. And forget about any elliptical training or cycling. It's enough just to get to and from work and I'm just exhausted.

There are more issues and I could go on forever, but those are the most troublesome. I just try so hard to stay positive but it's very hard sometimes. I pray that this is working, and that it is not all for not. I can't wait to be off these drugs, and my heart goes out to each and every one of you enduring the same thing and pray that it works for your too.

Good luck everyone.

:)J

I took Glucophauge (Metformin) with fertility treatments, when trying to conceive my first child. I got pregnant. I am now on it again trying to conceive for the second time. I have noticed that as long as I remain on a strict low-carb diet (like South Beach type) I do not experience any side effects. If you eat too many carbs you can definitely get diarrhea or vomiting!